New Review: Eurospeed/AA M50 Intake Manifold Kit & Custom Software (long..)

[ADVANT123]

Before I start my review, I would just like to state that I am in no way associated with Active Autowerke and Eurospeed Performance, I'm just a normal customer like most people on these boards.

Ok, now for the review:

My car is a 1997 M3(5 speed manual of course) with 86k miles. Before I got the AA software and Eurospeed Intake Manifold, my car was equipped with a Dinan CF Intake, Evosport Pulley Kit, AA Track Pipe, and Rogue Engineering exhaust. I felt the car was fast, but being a normal enthusiast, "fast" is never enough. Never fear, Eurospeed is here! In mid September, Alex from Eurospeed hosted a group buy for custom AA OBD2 software and a M50 (off either a pre 96 M3 or 325i) Intake Manifold for a VERY reasonable price. Being one not to pass up a good deal, I jumped on the group buy list and in mid oct, everything was complete. It took alex about 2 weeks to get all the necessary parts for the manifold kit and software, but he told me at the beginning of the group buy that it would take this long, so I wasn't bothered. When Alex had all the parts in his possession, I sent my ECU to alex in North Carolina to get reprogrammed. I sent the ECU on a tuesday morning. I told alex that I needed the ECU back by friday and he promised me I would have it back in time, even though we were cutting it close. Low and behold, Friday afternoon my ecu and intake manifold show up at my doorstep, just as Alex promised.

The Package:
The intake manifold and ecu were wrapped up nicely and there was no signs of damage. The intake manifold looked brand spanking new, even though I knew it was used and probably off a junkyard car. It was obvious that a great deal of time was spent cleaning and preparing the manifold. I was happy to see this as I am very "anal" about how my engine bay looks and i like to keep things as clean as possible. The next thing I noticed was this huge hose adapter. Being a mechanical engineering student that has gone thru "materials and design" courses, I could tell instantly that this was some heavy duty stuff, and let me tell ya, heavy duty stuff can get expensive. Again, I was impressed. The adapter was a very sturdy piece and most of the connections were already made for me. Anything that saves me time and aggravation is a positive, and this was definitely a positive. The rest of pieces of the kit came in their own bags and everything that I needed was included. The only thing missing from the kit was the Eurospeed Stickers I requested, oh well :12: . The kit came with a set of instructions. The instructions were VERY thorough, however, lacked pictures. Alex did include some simple hand-drawn diagrams that were very helpful, but I wish he would include some detailed pictures of how things were suppse to look. I also wish he included some sort of diagram for the electrical connectors. It would have been helpful, but if you follow everything in the instructions, its not necessary.

The ECU: I had my ECU optimized for 93 octane fuel and I requested that my redline be 7200rpm in 1st and 2nd gear and 7000rpm in 3rd 4th and 5th. I did this because I autocross my car and the extra few hundred RPM can come in handy in 1st and 2nd gear. The ECU is very easy to remove and install. it takes about 5-10 minutes tops. Another thing I wish is that Alex or AA post instructions online on how to do it. Being the curious guy I am, I decided I wanted to run the car with the new ECU before I installed the new intake manifold so I could see what difference the new software made. I plugged my reprogrammed ECU back in, crossed my fingers, and turned the key. Instantly, my little monster roared to life. The first thing I noticed is that the car ran SOOOOO smooth. I can't even stress how much smoother the car ran. Before the software, the car ran very rough on cold start ups and ran just overall very "shitty" in general. The new software gave the sensation of having a new engine installed in the car. Power delivery was smooth throughout the rev band and torque was abundant everywhere. The new redline was fun but the car seemed to lack balls up top, so I started second guessing my choice to make the rev limit so high. Power was up big time. So much so that the car had zero traction when I brought the car up to 3000RPM in 1st gear and smashed the throttle. Even when I shifted to 2nd gear, wheelspin was abundant. For the first time ever, I was fighting to keep the car straight.....at 60mph. I usually had "some" wheelspin in 1st gear with the old software, but it usually grabbed before i got to 2nd gear. Now, I was having serious traction problems in 2nd! (I'm running 245/40/17 Bridgestone Potenza S03PP's btw). I know this may be hard to understand considering my car is only "lightly" modified, but I have witnesses to the massive display of power. I only ran the car for 2 days without the manifold under Alex's advice. Now onto the install of the manifold:

M50 Intake Manifold Install: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

I went into this project having installed suspensions, exhausts, under-drive pullies, intakes, short shifters, brakes, etc. etc. I wouldnt consider myself to be a mechanic, but I can get by with most mechanical jobs as long as I have some sort of instruction or guidance. After reading numerous write-ups and seeing multiple pictures of the install, I thought to myself, "hey, that doesnt look to bad". So this past sunday night, I call two of my buddies over who also have good mechanical abilities and we get started around 8 p.m. at night. Being a full-time college student and working 20+ hours a week, I dont have much free time, so thats why I started so late. I went to home depot before the install to pick up some tools. Theres nothing like starting a job and not being able to finish it because you dont have the right tool. I pick up a flexible rachet, 10-19mm sockets, a magnet(you know your bound to drop a bolt in some tight spot out of reach by hand), a Flex "U Joint"(allows sockets to get to tight angles), various extensions(you really need a 10") and a mirror that would fit in tight spaces. Getting the fuel cover off was cake. Bleeding the fuel rail was easy. Unbolting the fuel rail was easy. Taking off the intake/hfm/asc throttlebody/ and engine throttle body was very easy. The hard part came when taking off the manifold. There are 7 bolts on top of the manifold, these are fairly easy to get to except for the last one near the firewall. that bolt takes some patience and finesse, but its definitely doable with the right tools. The hard part is what you CAN'T see. There are tons of vaccuum lines under the manifold that you can barely see and have to disconnect before you can get the old manifold off. One suggestion that I HOPE you will take from me is to PLEASE PLEASE label everything that you disconnect. It will make your life 10000x easier when putting everything back together. I labeled nothing thinking that I would be able to figure it out, only to fail miserably. LABEL LABEL LABEL!!! Another suggestion I have is to read thru the instructions a couple times before the install so you have a general idea of what your suppose to do. Once you finally get the damn manifold off, don't get scared. You will be amazed at the mess of hoses and wires left. Since Alex prepared a good portion of what needs to go on the new manifold, my job was minimal. I installed the Idle control valve(make sure when you install this, the arrow on the valve is pointed in the right direction, its suppose to be pointing towards the direction of the intake manifold) and crank case vent. Now comes the even harder part, trying to get everything to fit back on. Since the area you are working in is so tight and the hoses only have so much flex, things get difficult. Alex did a commendable job including enough hosing so that you have some room to play, but damn, its not fun. After about 2 hours of just trying to get all the hoses to fit and trying to orgranize everything as best we could, we were ready to start bolting the new intake manifold to the head. Luckily, the manifold bolts right onto the head, no need for drilling or any modification. However, trying to make it fit in there was a real pain. You have to manuever around hoses and the fuel rail. In fact, I broke two pintle caps(the plastic caps that protect the tips of the fuel injectors. They are replaceable but it took me 2 days to find replacements). Once you get everything lined up, its just a matter of tightening everything down. the 7 bolts on the top go on the same way they came off, but the two bolts under the manifold dont align perfectly, so you have to play with those a little to make them work. All i had to do was loosen the brackets and move them into place. The next problem area came with the fuel rail. When you put the injectors back in, you will notice that the fuel rail doesnt line up. Alex came up with a simple, clever bracket that allows you to bolt up the rail very easily. So i proceed to bolt everything else up and connect all the connectors as best I can. Finally, the time has come. We double check all the connections and I jump in the car, cross my fingers, and turn the key. The car jumps to life for about a millisecond than stalls. She won't start. It cranks over and starts, but won't hold an idle. All three of us yell out a synchronized "SHIT!" Its now 4 A.M., yes 7 hours later, and this thing won't start. After cursing at each other for couple minutes, we decide we are too tired and its to late to continue and we decide to troubleshoot the next day. I speak to alex bright and early the next day and he runs thru the whole installation with me and it seems like we did everything right. He is positive that its a vaccuum leak. Now its just a matter of finding it, which to say that least, can be very difficult considering the number of hoses we dealt with and the fact that all the hoses are under the manifold, which means we have to take everything apart again(yes, that means taking off the manifold) to fix it. However, going thru everything one by one, alex and I were able to find the problem: I forgot to install one of the throttle body gaskets, which was causing a huge leak. Luckily, this was a easy 10 minute fix and didn't required the removal of the manifold or any hoses. I install the missing throttle body gasket and try it again. VROOOOM! My baby roars to life and settles to a gentle purr at idle, nice and smooth like stock. No check engine lights and no abnormal noises or vibrations. I had my friends over at this time and it was like winning the lottery. We all jumped for joy and slapped each other on our backs for a job well done. Theres no greater satisfication knowing you just spent the last few days working under less than ideal conditions and having a positive outcome. I spoke to alex and informed him of the great news. Now lets go have some fun with our new toys

The Test Drive:

I took the car out and drove it down my street listening for leaks or anything out of the ordinary. Everything sounds good and the car runs super smooth. I bring it back into my garage and pop the hood and look for anything weird. Everything still good. I talk to alex and he tells me I can now go have some fun. You don't have to tell me twice, I'm ready to go rice hunting. I let the car warm up thoroughly for about 15 minutes before I really get on it. I go to nice open highway where theres no one except me and open road. I drop down to a slow roll in 1st gear, about 3500 in 1st gear. What happened next neither I nor my passenger expected..... I smash the throttle and instantly my whole body gets slammed into the seat like I got hit by an 18 wheeler. I'm so startled by how quickly the car accelerates that I'm caught off guard and smack the 7200RPM redline. My passenger and I look at each other and say "HOLY SHIT!!" In the blink of an eye the car vaporizes 1st gear. The best way to describe it is like being in an F16. The car has the sensation of having the back end squatting down and the front end lifting off like a jet hitting its afterburner. The pulling power is absolutely AMAZING! So I say to myself, hey, its just probably because of the fact that I'm in 1st gear and that that first gear is real short. So I say, lets do it again. I slow down again to about 4000 RPM this time in 1st gear and nail it. This time I'm ready for the massive amount of force that accompanies hitting the "go" pedal and time my 1-2 shift perfectly. Fighting the acceleration forces that are trying to splatter my head into my head reast, I concentrate on the tach and just try to avoid hitting the rev limiter. 1st gear comes to and almost instantly... a quick shift to second leads to a loud bark of protest from my S03s trying to find any grip they can... 2nd gear rockets to redline faster than it ever has before.... another shift to 3rd is accompanied by from what I can hear, ANOTHER(this has ONLY ever happened once before, and that was in misty conditions, the roads were bone try tonight) bark from the tires. Now heres the real test. 3rd gear is a longer gear and truly shows how much of an impact the manifold and software makes. The speedometer is ROCKETING .... 70.. 80.. 90... it doesnt stop, the car just keeps PULLING AND PULLING AND PULLING. Another shift 4th and now the car is doing 95... 100... 105... and its still pulling harder than ever before. On the 3-4 shift, it looked like the speedometer jumped from 90-100 almost instantly. I look over at my passeneger and see him grabbing on to door handle in fear for his life. My friend has been in my car hundreds of time before, so he knows what my "old" car felt like. And to see his facial expression put the biggest grin on my face. For the first time ever, I was actually AFRAID of the power of my car. The car accelerates so quickly and so powerfully now that it actually hurts your body. I have no idea how you turbo guys can drive those beasts everyday! The sound that car makes when revving is also breath taking. You can hear my Dinan Intake actually SCREAM now trying to suck in as much air as it can possibly handle. Gas milage has gone down some... probably because I can't get enough off awesome new power.

Driving like a normal person: I've read reviews of people complaining about low-end torque loss after they installed the manifold. I suspect that these people didn't install proper software to accompany the manifold as I have seen very little to no torque loss at ANY RPM. Even if I punch it at 2k RPM in one of the higher gears, the car pulls just as strong as the old manifold, if not harder.

Overall Performance Impression: Grade: A++++
I ask the moderators/administrators of the board to please excuse my language: The power is fucking unbelievably amazing. I know your probably saying "Yea yea, this guy is smoking something good", but God damn, this thing pulls fucking hard!!! I've had 3 passengers since I've installed the manifold and every response is the same : "Holy shit, what have you done to this thing!" The power is immediately noticable and is truly breath-taking. I'm actually angry that I've waited so long to do this. If I was only allowed to keep one of the modifications I have done to my car, out of all of them, I'd choose this one without a doubt. And just think, this isnt even an aftermarket part. This is an OEM BMW Part!

One issue that I feel absolutely compelled to comment on is the customer service I have received from Eurospeed. I have dealt with many BMW aftermarket companies, including Rogue Engineering, UUC, H&R, AA themselves, Evosport, Turner Motorsports, etc etc. and I have yet to find one company that can come even close to matching the excellent customer service I have received from Alex @ Eurospeed Performance. From day one, Alex has been there night and day to answer any little question I had about ANYTHING related to the car. In fact, Alex gave me his own personal cell phone number and told me to call him in case I ran into any problems. Well, I did run into a problem. I didnt know where any of the connectors went. So I called Alex @ 1 A.M. (yes, one o clock in the morning) on HIS BIRTHDAY and he politely and patiently walked me thru every hose and every electrical connector I had to connect. Now, thats what you call CUSTOMER SERVICE. I work for Nordstrom's Department store where they are known for their "customer service" and I can tell you that I don't know of anytimes where we have matched Alex's customer service. He has been there day and night for me and I truly appreciate his help and patience. No, Alex is not giving me a discount to write this whole little passage(hey alex, thats not a bad idea, how about a discount on some headers :12: ), I just like to give people credit for their hard work when its due. I wish there were more vendors out there like Eurospeed and I know for a fact that I will definitely be giving them my business in the future. In fact, i'm currently talking to them about upgrading already .

I think I covered everything in this whole book of a review. If you guys have any questions or are unclear about anything I've said, send me an email @ ADVANT123@aol.com or post a message up here. I check the boards frequently so I should get back to ya quickly.

Happy Motoring and thanks for reading!

Joe

[MVEED3]

I'm assuming your car is the fastest thing you've ever driven. I understand your excitement but let's try to keep it a little more realistic. You know, sort of like hyping a movie up for more than it's worth. It would suck for Alex to get customers asking for their money back after installing his kits because their cars didn't feel anything like a jet

Anyways, I'm glad you like your setup. If you ever get a chance, let's see some time slips or dyno graphs so we can relate to what you're talking about.

[ADVANT123]

i have been in E46 m3s, 400hp civics, no my car isnt the fastest car i've ever been in

[SG_M3]

Your review is nice, but numbers talk. Got a dyno?

[ADVANT123]

hopefully on thursday.

[johnnym3]

Hey I just had schrick cams put in and I ordered the manifold kit from Alex . I can't wait to install mine. My cars torque down low feels awesome with the cams ,but I don't think it's pulling like its suppose to up high. I hope the manifold takes care of that. Does anyone know when the cam software from Alex is going to be done? I'm going to get that software when it comes out.

[BSH]

Congratulations, man.

It's always nice to hear positive reviews about a mod. :

[Virg///M3]

That was great man : I also have an '97 M3 stick just 5 month old. Reading your thread has assured me an upgrade to look forward to. I will be installing UCC Pulleys as my first mod due to a belt problem. Normally I had plan for CAI & Chip. And now strong consideration for AA chip.

[ADVANT123]

Thanks guys. I guess some people kind of mis-understood why I posted this thread. I didn't have any intentions of making people think that this mod will magically make your car into a F16 jet. I was trying to give people the sensation I felt the first time I smashed the throttle. I know these mods only needed a 15-20whp gain at the very very very most, but considering that most of the mods I have done to my car have netted a "feeling" of 0 hp gain, its nice to finally have bought a mod that I can feel. This thread is solely based on my own experience and opinion. Of course every owner will feel differently about different mods (some people say they felt no gain when they installed their track pipe, i did feel a gain), but I'm just here to give my 2 cents.

Happy Motoring Guys

[SG_M3]

Originally posted by ADVANT123
hopefully on thursday.

What did you make before the manifold?

[endonuky]

I am assuming here, but I think one reason you felt such a huge gain, was that it appears you had the CAI, AND the track pipe and the UD pullies with no software change whatsoever from stock, prior to installation of the intake manifold? Is that correct?

Phil

[axcE36M3]

track pipe and pullies won't change any with addition of software. the factory cats on a obd2 car aren't that stressed as it is and pullies are not affected by software.

software for a car with cai and/or exhaust will definitely help out smoothing out the powerband and making the car feel torquier. but the manifold with the manifold software will allow the car to pull cleaner to redline instead of starting to taper off around 5k.

the manifold mod is really for high end power, and it goes give a lot.

[endonuky]

Alex: if this is Alex from Eurospeed

My intention was not to put down the manifold and manifold software, in fact I spoke with you and am considering this mod. along with the "socketing" for my ECU.

It's just that when I installed a CAI and exhaust and AA software on my OBDll, I got a pretty big gain, or at least by the "butt dyno", and regardless of what a dyno might indicate, the increase in the rev limiter along with the CAI definitely made the car "feel" faster thru 1st and 2nd gear, actually thru all the gears.

It just seems to me that even a bone stock M3 is stifled in first gear by the rev limiter. Bangs up against it too quickly.

That being said, the gains from the manifold definitely sound impressive, and I will definitely be going this route with your product on my way to cams.

Phil

[ASCH MAN]

Glad that the car is running so well. I have been eyeing this mod too.

Also glad that customer service was so great. However, I would never think of calling someone on their personal cell phone at 1 in the morning. That is just not cool, give him some personal time.

Anyway, would you attemp this mod again by youserlf knowing what a pain it is? How quickly could you do it the second time?

[ADVANT123]

I spoke with Alex online at 1 a.m. before i called him on his cell phone. He is the one who offered for me to call him. If I were to do this mod again and actually read the instructions instead of pretending like I knew how to do everything, I could probably bang it out 4 hours. The gains from the manifold are definitely worth the pain and aggravation.


Yes, I had stock software with the Intake, exhaust, track pipe and UD pullies.

[96cosmosM3]

This is a great mod for OBD2s. I've had my manifold a year and couldnt be happier.

If you think the install was hard, be glad you didn't choose the homedepot "Kit" with midnightautowerks "instructions"

[StouffvilleZ3]

I've done a few M50 installs now and they can be done in 3 hours. Cams- about 4 hours. Injectors 1/2 hour tops.
Nice post, I noticed the same thing wiht my M52, but Cams made most of the differnece for me. I still need software.

[ADVANT123]

Stoufvillez3... glad to hear you like the manifold too! I'm sure the M50 Manifold couple with S52 cams makes for a very fun Z3.

[Fissionx]

another satisified customer. I know i was glad i did it

[Matutino]

I'm thinking of doing it but my questions is ............I have dinan SF right now so if I install the manifold should I change my SF again?
Any Dyno yet and how do you feel this mod after a few days?

[Hornswoggler]

Anybody have a dyno on this mod yet?

I don't even see one on eurospeed's web site.

I would like to see how it affects the low-end torque.

[Atrane23]

I am really thinking of doing this mod in the future, but I too would like to see some #'s

[BGM3]

next week

[Matutino]

Hey BGM3 are you done with yours?